Target demographics:

poor, indigenous children in Guatemala

Geographic areas served:

Guatemala

Programs:

Reading for Life is the name of our flagship literacy program in Guatemala. Through Reading for Life, we help more than 8,500 children in over 50 villages improve their lives through education. Each year, we help hundreds of teachers in remote villages more effectively teach children to read. We deliver tens of thousands of children’s books to neglected schools and libraries.
We create and improve community libraries and train librarians to be promoters of reading in their villages. We provide scholarships, fund schools for children living in poverty, and support educational programs for indigenous girls. We also provide training, materials and support to local organizations that are working to improve educational opportunity for children.
Reading for Life is effective because it is multifaceted. It is sustainable because we invest in local people. It is empowering because it gives children the greatest resource they can possess to lift themselves from poverty: literacy.

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Reviews for Child Aid

Recently we had a chance to see all the wonderful things Child Aid accomplishes, and it was more than we could have imagined. Child Aid employs local staff whose creativity, drive, and enthusiasm fuels the success of the literacy program in their own communities. Everybody’s effort associated with the program (staff, teachers, librarians, parents, neighbors and students) not only accomplishes Child Aid’s education/literacy goals, but also creates an environment whose grassroots enable enrichment in so many other intangible ways that will be passed from generation to generation in Guatemala helping to end any cycle of poverty.

When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

Child Aid is doing fantastic work in the area of childrens literacy in many communities in Guatemala. Their approach, which includes continuous training of their "on the ground" team who then train the teachers and the librarians in the local communities is empowering to so many, and just makes sense. One of the most inspiring things is seeing the kids excited about reading, then teaching other kids, inspiring them, and knowing that being a donor is only one small (but important!) part of the process, with the big work being done by the staff, teachers, librarians and mostly the kids. I highly recommend getting involved!

How likely are you to donate to this group again?

When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

I have been a board member of Child Aid for more than 10 years. I am very careful about how I allocate my volunteer time and resources, and I am proud to be a supporter of Child Aid. I have seen firsthand what a difference our work has made to so many lives, and how far our dollars go in Latin America. I am also the board chair of a small community foundation, and in that capacity, I work with a lot of non-profits. Child Aid is the only organization outside of the non-profits in my community that I work with. Why? The impact of our programs, the passionately committed volunteers and staff, and the fact that Child Aid is run in an extremely professional and fiscally responsible manner are why I support Child Aid.

If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...

When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

I am the father of two children adopted from Guatemala and have been working with Child Aid for a number of years as a way of supporting positive change in the country. I joined the board this year and had a chance to visit the country and see their Reading for Life programs first-hand.

I was most impressed to see how their multi-faceted approach -- providing books, training teachers and librarians and supporting local libraries -- is changing the culture of education in these communities. Not only are kids getting access to books and vital literacy skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, but teachers and librarians are getting high quality training that will make them better at their jobs. The energy and enthusiasm for learning (and teaching) that I found in the schools I visited was inspiring. It illustrates Child Aid's long-term focus on investing in and empowering local people that I think will pay great dividends in the future.

When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

I have worked with Child Aid for the past several years. They have done so much to improve the lives of children. Nothing makes a bigger difference in a child's future than the ability to read, think & dream! Please join me in supporting Child Aid. Thanks!

When was your last experience with this nonprofit?

Child Aid is great. The staff in Guatemala have been tremendous to work with. The projects are engaging and active and one is able to see that the staff have been very attentive to the communities that they work with. i certainly would not hesitate recommending Child Aid to anyone! i have had the chance to observe what they do and the impact they have in communities and each time i have been impressed. i appreciate that they respect and listen to communities and yet also challenge them in their libraries. Very impressive!

Public schools in Guatemala, particularly in remote villages, have few if any resources. The books I have been able to get from Child Aid to share with some of these schools have been received with a kind of heart-felt thanks and wonder that enhances the power of reading and writing in ways hard to believe. Teachers, earning less than $150 a month, and students coming to school with nothing more than a tortilla for lunch, if that, are amazed by these books and so proud to have them in their school "libraries". They have worked hard to raise a small amount to help pay for them and value them beyond measure. Thank you, John and Child Aid, you are making a huge difference on the ground and in the classroom!

Our non-profit organization in Guatemala, Esperanza Juvenil, has benefited from the wonderful work of Child Aid in two ways. First, Child Aid has donated a number of excellent, high quality, hardcover children’s books for our library. In the context of Guatemala, where it is extremely difficult and expensive to get books for children, this has been a tremendous resource. Second, our teachers and staff have participated in Child Aid’s training which has helped them to develop skills to promote literacy and a love of reading with our children. Over the last five years, we have seen and measured a high rate of improvement in our children’s reading skills and passion for reading. We thank Child Aid for being a key partner in this effort!

My wife and I were part of the 16 member team that catalogued books and painted the inside and outside of a school in 2009 and 2010. We saw how teacher training has helped instruction. We noticed the enthusiasm of children who voluntarily attended a reading program during their vacation time. We were impressed by how the community became involved in the improvement of their children's education. We were very impressed by the Guatemalan teachers trained by Child-Aid and by the entire staff of the organization in Guatemala and in Portland, Oregon.

I run a very small non-profit program in an indigenous mountain village in Guatemala, where we have established both an elementary and junior high school. We began our collaboration with Child Aid last year, when we were fortunate enough to send two of our teachers to Child Aid’s teacher training program. Although our teachers are dedicated and want their students to receive a quality education, they are a product of an educational system that recently was ranked 125 out of 133 nations evaluated by the World Economic Forum. Having never been exposed to books themselves in their homes as a child or at school as part of their education, our teachers lack the necessary skills to teach reading even though they now have access to various materials and resources. Child Aid’s programs provide the teachers training in stimulating a desire among their students to read in a culture without the resources or the tradition of reading. They also focus on techniques to develop reading comprehension, a glaring void that existed in our curriculum. Child Aid’s teacher training program has already helped us tremendously in our attempt to raise the level of education in our village.

I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...

In addition to the teacher training, we have been privileged to receive for a nominal charge a generous donation from Child Aid of books and educational material. It is rare that children in Guatemala have an opportunity to utilize books in the classroom and even rarer that they can take them out of the school setting and enjoy them at home. Child Aid has provided this unique opportunity to the children in our community.

If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...

Child Aid is a valuable and essential resource to the people of Guatemala and is deserving of your support. I hope that they will be able to expand the program in Guatemala to reach even more educational institutions.